Welcome to TJ Hock's World of Reading

Archive for the ‘Books and Authors’ Category

I am a voracious reader. It’s a really good day when I finish a book I love by a new author AND I find out that it is only one of a series of books. How do I know I loved the book? I didn’t want it to end and I wanted to know more. My favorite books are thrillers and mysteries and all the various sub-genres that encompasses.

I use all kinds of ways to find great thrillers and mysteries. Used to be back in the day, I could always count on print magazines and newspapers to provide summer beach reads, better still when it was great mystery reads for summer. However, articles like that don’t provide a voracious reader with enough material. So I had to branch out.

When I moved to Lisle, IL, I branched out and joined a book club at my local library. I can highly recommend Murder Among Friends Lisle Library’s Mystery Book Group led by Patti Ruocco. http://murderamongfriends.wordpress.com/ We meet on Thursday nights at the Lisle Library at 7:00pm. Our August meeting to be held on August 16 at 7:00 pm is our planning meeting. Even the books that don’t hit our list are pretty good reads. Our monthly reads always include a wide variety of sub genres. But because I am known as “the dark one” in the club I had to branch out even further to find more books with serial killers and political intrigue, two of my favorites.

I always wanted a list of the books I owned, but setting up a data base or spreadsheet with pertinent information seemed daunting to me. Then I found www.librarything.com. I could finally list all of my books by simply keying in an ISBN number. And boy is it all the pertinent information. It even includes weight and dimensions! Who knew?

And then I learned the very best news of all. Librarything.com has a section called LibraryThing Early Reviewers. LibraryThing Early Reviewers provides free pre-release books to members willing to review them. All you have to do is request it. Request it and be one of 40 or 50 people out of 1000 to 1200 people. Yea, they only have limited numbers of review copies. And you have to write a review, but this is one place quality doesn’t count, but quantity does. Just write a review 25 words or more and post it on the website. I have found that if you are diligent about writing reviews after you have received the free copy, you are rewarded with additional wins. To date I have requested 117 books and “won” 22. Pretty good odds I think.

Anyway, I love to recommend my favorite books and authors to others who are searching for a good read. So my plan for this site is to review books in the thriller and mystery genres, more intrigue than cozy, but as a true Agatha Christie fan, I’m sure a cozy or two will make the list. So if you are looking for some good reads, check it out.

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